How the Academy Plans to Make the Oscars More Diverse: Term Limits and a Global Hunt for New Members

After a full week of outcry and public debate following the year’s Oscar nominations, featuring almost entirely white nominees, the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has publicly committed to a “sweeping series of substantive changes” to bring more diversity to the group.

The biggest change—what was described as the “nuclear option” among pundits and seemed unlikely to ever pass—is that membership is now limited to 10 years, and can be renewed only if that member has been active in the film industry within that decade. Three 10-year terms confers lifetime membership, as does being nominated for or winning an Oscar, but this likely means that hundreds of current members, who are retired or otherwise inactive in the industry, will be moved to “emeritus” status—that is, still a member, but unable to vote.

In addition, the Academy will commit to an “ambitious, global campaign to identify and recruit qualified new members who represent greater diversity,” in addition to the current process by which current members sponsor new ones. The Board of Governors says they are committed to doubling the number of women and “diverse members” of the Academy within the next four years; given that the membership is currently primarily white and male, expanding beyond the sponsorship model does seem like the only way to accomplish that goal so quickly.

Word of the Academy’s plan for “dramatic” changes leaked in recent days, with the most common speculation being that they would change the best-picture field to again include 10 films. Changing the makeup of the membership, though, is likely to lead to a much more long-term and significant change. What is an “Oscar movie”—and what receives financing and campaigns from its studio as a result—depends entirely on the makeup of the Oscar voters, and the best chance at expanding that definition is expanding the types of people who vote on them. Expect a backlash on the new 10-year-term rule—there will be Hollywood veterans incensed to hear that their voting rights have been revoked—but also, eventually, hopefully, some real change.